


The Vacuum of Silence: What happens when queer characters aren't allowed to speak

by Daisyapples



Series: Queer Essays [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Supernatural
Genre: Essays, M/M, Queer Character, Queer Culture, Queer Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:28:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28095420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daisyapples/pseuds/Daisyapples
Summary: At the end of it all, this is not just a representation problem.This is a narrative issue.We deserved to see Bucky and Steve have a conversation on screen because the narrative demanded it. We deserved to see Dean respond to Cas because the narrative supported it. Eventually, pandering to the lowest common denominator within the audience means bad writing, means unsatisfying conclusions to stories which have been told over years, means wasting your audience's time.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: Queer Essays [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2058276
Comments: 10
Kudos: 54





	The Vacuum of Silence: What happens when queer characters aren't allowed to speak

**Author's Note:**

> I got tired of watching stories being destroyed by compulsive heteronornativity so I wrote an essay. 
> 
> Any thoughts/comments/ideas for other essays would be appreciated

A conversation waits to happen. 

Squatting in the back of scenes, it forces the narrative in bizarre directions to avoid the confrontation. This conversation is an accumulation of years of organic storytelling that represents a natural evolution of the narrative, an unexpected arc that adds depth to what could otherwise have been considered a formulaic and predictable story. 

The words are ready to be spoken.  
The conversation is waiting. 

The year is 2016. Obama is still president. Almost a year has passed since Ireland voted for same-sex marriage, the first country in the world to bring it in by popular vote. _Supernatural_ is in its eleventh season. Destiel is the most popular ship on A03. _Civil War_ , the third Captain America movie, has earned over 1 billion dollars at the box office and #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend is trending on Twitter. What was previously considered a pairing regulated to Tumblr and fandom shipping, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes has grown into a conversation that is being had by the mainstream audience, being discussed in articles across different media including _Time_ , _MTV_ , the _UK Independent_ and _EW_. The question that has finally come to everyone's attention is as simple as it is controversial; could Captain America be queer? 

The narrative within the MCU certainly supports it. 

Friends since childhood, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes were separated when Bucky enlisted in the army during the second World War. Steve is later given a serum which turns him into a super soldier and he eventually follows Bucky into the war. Unknown to Steve, Bucky is also given the serum while being held as a POW. Frozen through time until they are reunited in the 21st century, the ‘Captain America’ movies follow their story as they lose each other, find each other and lose each other again. 

Throughout _Civil War_ , the third ‘Captain America’ movie, Steve Rogers fights for his best friend Bucky Barnes, going first against 117 countries, and then against his fellow Avengers, all to ensure that Bucky remains safe. He becomes a fugitive _for_ Bucky. He destroys the Avengers _for_ Bucky. He stops being Captain America _for_ Bucky. This follows _The Winter Soldier_ , in which Bucky broke seventy years of brainwashing instead of killing Steve. After dragging Steve's body to safety, Bucky disappears and the fans are left waiting for the next movie to see how it will be resolved. 

Bucky is the driving force of Steve Rogers’ character arc in all three of the ‘Captain America’ movies. In _The First Avenger_ , it's Bucky's unit being captured that leads to Steve finally taking up the mantle of Captain America as a hero rather than the showman he'd been before. Later, Bucky's death is what causes him to attack Hydra's main headquarters, ending in his death. 

Would Steve have allowed himself to die if Bucky was still alive? A deleted scene in _Endgame_ , the last ‘Avengers’ movie, implied there was no reason for Steve to go down with the plane. This leads to questions about Steve's motivations. His devastation at Bucky's death is the driving force in the final act of the movie and not even Peggy, his love interest, can talk Steve out of crashing the plane. It makes the scene more poignant when Steve tells Peggy this is his choice, a reference to her telling Steve to respect Bucky's choice as she comforted him in the bombed-out pub where he and Bucky had shared a drink earlier in the movie. 

_The Winter Soldier_ is a masterclass in storytelling. It shows Steve learning to live in the future while clinging to the past with his visits to an elderly Peggy, living in a nursing home and often forgetting he's back, and the Smithsonian hosting an exhibit about his past with videos of Bucky. It shows him lost as to what he's meant to do without a war to fight. Peggy's final scene in the movie is in the first act. She tells Steve to move on, and the next scene introduces the Winter Soldier. When Bucky is revealed to be the Winter Soldier, saving him is Steve's motivation for the rest of the movie; the same motivation he has in _The First Avenger_ , and what will become his motivation in _Civil War_. 

Even when warned he may not be able to save Bucky, Steve refuses to give up on him. In the end, he almost allows Bucky to beat him to death instead of hurting him, and he delivers one of the movie's most iconic lines, _"Then finish it. Cause I'm with you to the end of the line."_ Steve is willing to die for Bucky, and this line, the same line Bucky said to Steve after his mother's funeral, is what causes Bucky to break free of his programming, and save Steve. The movie ends with Steve deciding to go after him, making him the driving force for the third movie as well. 

The second ‘Avengers’ movie, _Age of Ultron_ , shows that Steve is continuing his search for Bucky, and also finally allows him to put his past to rest as he realises he's changed from who he was before he went into the ice and is now home. It's the culmination of his arc in _The Winter Soldier_ ; Steve is home, he has friends and a team. He has a mission in the Avengers and a purpose in searching for Bucky. 

_Civil War_ reinforces Bucky's importance in the opening sequence when Steve freezes up when Bucky is mentioned, resulting in an explosion that kills thirteen. Later, when Bucky is accused of bombing the UN, Steve does everything he can to make sure he finds him first, not caring that the action leads to him being considered a criminal because it means Bucky is still alive. 

The conversation that happens in _Civil War_ is short. Five lines long. A scene in a plane that allows Bucky to express his regret and guilt for his actions as the Winter Soldier, and allows Steve to reassure him that it wasn't his fault. The next scene is them discussing a day in Brooklyn and a date. There is no discussion as to why Steve is destroying his life to save his friend. The reason is implicit in every action; Bucky is more important than _everyone else_ in Steve's life, up to and including the Captain America mantle. This is emphasised when he fights Tony Stark and drops the shield at the end of the movie instead of abandoning Bucky. 

In the final scenes where a conversation and a resolution of the emotional journey would be expected, it is once again pushed away. Bucky choses to be frozen again and Steve goes back to the fight. The movie ends with no explanation for why Steve has willingly walked away from the life he's built in the future for his best friend. 

There is a gap, an empty space, a missing element to the storytelling. 

The _why_ drives the fandom, drives the hashtags, drives the questions. It is supported by the writers and the actors who remain ambiguous about character motives. Sometimes they even encourage the queer readings, because it drives sales and engagement among queer people. This is the crux of the problem; queer fans engage, they shop, they identify with the characters and then they make sure to follow those same characters through each movie, spending even more money. Queer people are cash cows for the studios, so starved for real representation they are willing to fill in the blanks and help make thin storytelling rich and complex. The studios are happy to exploit this need for representation without actually giving _authentic_ representation. 

_Infinity War_ , the third ‘Avengers’ movie, showed one brief hug between Steve and Bucky but no real conversation. The scene of most importance is Bucky’s death, the thing Steve has been actively fighting against throughout all of his movies. Bucky is the first character to be dusted on screen. The emotional resonance of the scene is cemented by the movies that came before; everything Steve has fought for is personified in Bucky and to show his death first amplifies what has been lost at the end of the movie. It humanises the snap and allows the audience to understand the gravity of what has happened. Bucky is the most important person Steve lost during the snap, the most important person he has to lose. 

Bucky is the emotional crux of Steve's character and _Endgame_ promised a resolution. Unfortunately, it didn't deliver on that promise. One could argue the movie is barely a story; it is a culmination of _remember that moment?_ throwbacks, leading to a big fight scene which panders to women and dudebros alike. It is weaponized nostalgia. Compulsive heteronormativity wrapped up in a movie. Throughout the final battle, every character has a moment to resolve their story except for Steve and Bucky. In fact, they are the only pair with no emotional resolution. 

Steve's character transformation is arguably the most shocking in the movie; he doesn't mourn the loss of his two best friends; rather, the movie focuses his grief on a woman who died eight years previously. Peggy's importance is suddenly emphasised in a way that doesn't fit the narrative of the previous movies. After her funeral in _Civil War_ , Bucky becomes Steve's only focus and he does not mention her again until _Endgame_. He even goes so far as to kiss her niece not long after her funeral. 

Rather than have the conversation that has been building for six films, _Endgame_ forces the narrative towards a heterosexual love interest that is no longer relevant to the story, and this twist empties the movie of any real meaning. The lack of conversation haunts the movie, growing until it sucks all life from the characters. When Steve eventually goes back to Peggy using the infinity stones, a woman he barely knew and who is framed as his prize, it steals all worth from the character. After fighting for Bucky over and over again, he suddenly leaves him without any on screen explanation. The conversation never takes place and so the character becomes devoid of principles, devoid of morality, devoid of meaning. He becomes a caricature of what he once stood for and instead becomes a MaryStu for compulsive heteronormativity. 

_Avengers: Endgame_ was never going to flop at the box office. By the end of its run, it had earned over 2 billion dollars worldwide and was the highest grossing film of all time. Queer people never expected onscreen representation within the MCU. They knew it was unlikely that the pinnacle of American masculinity would be allowed to be viewed as anything but a straight cis man. 

The problem lies in the accidental writing of a character as queer and the cynical encouragement of queer fans into engaging with the character until it no longer suits the studio. Steve and Sharon's kiss in _Civil War_ was added after filming had ended. It is awkward and disruptive, holding no narrative value except that it solidifies Steve Rogers as a cis straight man. It is not unreasonable to question whether this was added because of the growing online support that Steve Rogers was queer and in love with his best friend. It is here that a number of problems become evident, and here that the conversation must swing to the textual issues that this lack of acknowledgement leads to within the story. 

_The Winter Soldier_ is thematically a love story, and had the roles been reversed, had it been Bucky dying of old age and Peggy returning as the Winter Soldier, the love story would never have been questioned as textually present. This lack of acknowledgement leads to queerbaiting of fans by actors and writers who hype up the chance of queer content and then refuse to allow the story to reach its natural conclusion. It forces characters back into narrative arcs they no longer fit, and destroys years of storytelling to ensure that heterosexual ideals are maintained. Open endings are no longer acceptable when the queer readings go mainstream, because it would allow queer fans to keep producing queer content and may drive away conservative audiences from the media. 

This inorganic narrative creation can be seen in the final episodes of _Supernatural_.

 _Supernatural_ is the story of two brothers who hunt monsters across America. In the fourth season, Castiel, an angel of the Lord, is introduced and becomes part of their family. Dean and Castiel are shown to have a closer relationship than Sam and Castiel, and fans have argued that they are in love. The subtext, and often the text itself, regularly supports these readings.

The final season aired during the winter of 2020 after Covid-related delays. The fifteenth season is a coherent and excellent piece of storytelling that ties together previous season arcs and races towards the finale with a clear destination. And then, it jumps the tracks of its own narrative arc and the last two episodes make no sense within the overall story. Make no sense within the last four seasons. Make no sense within the long-term growth of the characters. The confusion and outrage of the audience was palpable. 

The third from last episode, titled originally ‘The Truth’ but later changed to ‘Despair’, aired in the middle of the 2020 American election, arguably the most important in American history. During this historic event, #Destiel broke through the updates and became one of the top trending hashtags for over 24 hours. This was a result of Cas declaring his love for Dean before being swept away to the Empty, or as the fandom have nicknamed it, ‘Super Hell’. The acknowledgement would've been better received if what followed hadn't been so shockingly violent, homophobic and narratively nonsensical. After his declaration of queer love, Cas is immediately killed in the most blatant bury-your-gays trope ever used. Cas is killed _because_ he spoke his truth, _because_ he is queer. 

Dean never speaks. 

Two episodes follow Cas's declaration and Dean remains silent about the confession throughout. He barely even mentions Cas, his best friend of twelve years and the man who he shares a canonically addressed profound bond. It's important to note that after season six, Dean is not given another love interest. Where narratively one would be expected, Cas fills the role. In the final episodes, the show reverts to the storytelling of the first season, focusing on the brother's bond and ignoring all other members of their found family. Ignoring fifteen years of character growth, it is particularly jarring in the last episode, in which the brothers barely mention any other character with whom they’ve built a relationship with. It doesn’t follow any logic; for one main character to declare his love for another and for it then to never be spoken of again? It is, plain and simply, bad writing. This absence leaves a gaping hole in the narrative. There is no conclusion to the previous plot threads. There is no resolution. 

There is no conversation. 

This was reflected in the confusion and anger after the show ended. #Theysilencedyou trended when a cut of the show came out in Mexico, with Dean responding positively to Cas's love confession. This has been credited by the CW as ‘a rogue translator’. A later interview with the voice dub actor for Dean Winchester’s character revealed it was in fact a creative decision by the director Adrian Fogarty, as the text supported the reciprocation. Within the original narrative, Dean is never allowed to respond to Cas – either to deny his love, or declare his own feelings. 

Although this particular example is notable for the impossibility of a satisfactory resolution due to the show ending, the lack of conversation between Dean and Cas can be seen throughout the series. Each time Cas dies and returns, most pointedly in the thirteenth season when Dean's grief is narratively shown to be different to Sam's, there is no conversation. Each betrayal, each mistake, each argument; no conversation follows and it becomes a gaping emptiness within the plot, a black hole that begins to steal the emotional effectiveness of other scenes, because without acknowledging this elephant in the room, it is impossible for the story to remain meaningful. 

There are many factors fans have posited as the reasons why the series ended the way it did; network interference, homophobia, conservative audiences and capitalism are some stated theories. Fans are rightly concerned that the reason _Supernatural_ finished the way it did was because the network decided to play to the conservative audience to try to promote Jared Padalecki's new show. The same could be said of Disney and the MCU with _Endgame_ because narratively, neither endings of these stories make sense. The endings also destroy the character arcs of the protagonists, and yet, they were allowed to occur for what can only be assumed are capitalist motivations of the megacorps; ensuring the continuation of media consumption by conservative audiences, who are still deemed to be the key demographic of many forms of media. 

It is assumed queer audiences will continue to watch despite this; poor representation is so standard that _any_ representation tends to be appreciated and even loved, queerbaiting by actors and writers means queer people will continue to attend cons and spend money, and, through the act of transformative fiction, queer audiences often pad the thin storylines and characterization, allowing characters to seem more complex, which often results in the writers being given more credit than they are due. It can also be argued that queer writers on shows such as _Supernatural_ battle to get representation seen – even if it is only in the subtext and often missed by the general audience. 

Pandering to conservative audiences is unacceptable; not just for storytelling but for society itself. Society is a construct, we are forever recreating it, but if megacorps like Disney and the CW continue to put conservative beliefs ahead of tangible representation, nothing will ever change. We need to see minorities on TV, need to normilise their existence in such a way that conservative audiences stop seeing them as _the queer agenda_ or _forced diversity_ and instead start seeing stories as a reflection of the world we live in. 

At the end of it all, this is not just a representation problem. This is a narrative issue. We deserved to see Bucky and Steve have a conversation on screen because the narrative demanded it. We deserved to see Dean respond to Cas because the narrative supported it. Eventually, pandering to the lowest common denominator within the audience means bad writing, means unsatisfying conclusions to stories which have been told over years, means wasting your audience's time. 

Steve going back in time without explaining it to Bucky, and through him the audience, is not a satisfying conclusion to his arc which at its most basic level is about moving forward, finding a place in the world and always fighting for what you believe in. It is the antithesis of who his character was shown to be for almost a decade. Peggy had not been made more important in the narrative than Bucky, and so, it is unsatisfying for Steve to choose her over him. 

Refusing to allow Dean to speak negates the character growth the audience had watched for fifteen years. It negates narrative arcs canonically accepted. It changes who the character is in the final installment of the show. If your audience is left questioning the writer’s narrative choices because they are narratively nonsensical, because the character acts in a way that changes who they've been through previous seasons, then the writers have failed to end their story in a satisfying and coherent way. 

Neither of these stories were intentionally written as queer, but they evolved into queer stories, and the undeniable fact remains that if Bucky and Cas had been women, these stories would be viewed as romantic and would have been acknowledged. The conversations would have been had. The stories are inherently romantic, and inherently queer, and by refusing to allow the characters to acknowledge this element of their narrative arc, by refusing to allow the characters to have the conversation, the story becomes empty of any true meaning.


End file.
